


These Battle Scars Don't Look Like They're Fading (Don't Look Like They're Ever Goin' Away)

by uaigneach



Series: 2018 In-Class Works [21]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Identity Reveal, Not Season/Series 02 Compliant, Post-Reveal Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Reality, Scars, The new tag that will apply to all of my ml fics now, the class all knows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-04-25 20:53:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14386914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uaigneach/pseuds/uaigneach
Summary: The class asks about Adrien and Marinette's scars. The footage from the big reveal is shared and stories are told.





	These Battle Scars Don't Look Like They're Fading (Don't Look Like They're Ever Goin' Away)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Battle Scars](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/372456) by Guy Sebastian. 



> So confession: I don't really know what my timeline is. I started this in college, but they have to go to lycee at some point?? I don't know what I'm doing so like... I guess by now they're in lycee. Ugh, I'm just going to avoid mentioning grades in the next bit until them being in lycee is a bit more concrete.

They’d caught a glimpse during that one pool centred swimming class, but they really hadn’t seen all that much. The only one who’d seen all of his scars was Marinette, although Sabine Cheng had seen an awful lot of his back while helping her daughter patch him up. Not even Chloe, Nathaniel, or Nino had seen more than his arms and legs. Those were bad, but it was his torso which was the worst – there was a reason that he no longer did shirtless shoots without intense amounts of make up and photoshop.

The photographers didn’t know that he was Chat Noir, but they did know that he was involved in some shady things. Things that got him hurt.

After meeting Marinette, none of them asked questions.

 

The class knew on some fundamental level that Adrien had taken a lot of really awful hits during his tenure as Chat Noir, but it hadn’t really sunk in. Not until Alix brought it up at the tail end of their study session. All the work had been completed for hours so they’d just been goofing off and gossiping like the teenagers they were. But he couldn’t blame them for being curious about this.

“So, how many scars do you even have? You have accelerated healing… right? So does that minimize the size and severity of the scars?” Alix wonders from where she’d draped herself over one of Chloe’s couches. She was hanging upside down in a lazy sprawl surrounded by textbooks. Everyone else was similarly sprawled around the large living area of the penthouse, but they also parked up at the possibility of Alix receiving an answer. Marinette sat up, shooting him a glance as they both silently deliberated on the pros and cons of how to answer that question.

On the one hand, they themselves didn’t completely understand how things worked, and showing would make just how dangerous their job is a reality for their friends. They may believe that they understand because they witnessed the inciting incidents, but they haven’t truly seen the aftermath.

(The worst scar lay on his stomach – it went halfway through him and all the way across him. It was his oldest scar, and the worst. It was horrifying, and there’s no proper way to explain it. It looks like someone tried to cut him in half.)

They’ve all heard the stories, but when hearing things on the news, it always sounded surreal – like the people it happened to weren’t real. But here he was now, right in their faces. A real-life survivor of all the horrors that they’d heard so much about.

On the other hand, once their classmates were aware of just how bad things really were, they would look at them differently. They already were. Today was really the first time that they’d actually treated them how they used to. Don’t get him wrong, the entire class had handled this incredibly well, but they treated them kind of like celebrities. The ‘normal’ felt stiff and unnatural.

But during this impromptu study session, it had been like they weren’t heroes. They were just normal teenagers trying to survive the transition to Lycée. Getting used to schedules was still a pain, although their class was kept together by their collective secret.

Nothing brings people together (or tears people apart faster) quite like a secret.

 

Marinette sighed before caving. “I assume that every body knows that none of this leaves the room,” she says, making eye contact with everyone.

“It goes without saying.” Alya agreed.

And without further adieu, Adrien shucked off his jacket and began to remove his shirt. He stood up and did a little twirl in the middle of the room. An audible gasp could be heard from everyone as his scars were revealed. His arms and legs had various scratches and claw marks wrapped around his flesh. There was a band of flesh on his ankle that was completely white – that was due to a very aggressive rope burn. His foot had nearly been ripped off. There was a hand print on his shoulder as well.

But as expected, all eyes were fixed on his torso. The stab scars stood out against the tan skin of his back, and there was a large set of 3 claw marks slashing across his chest. All eyes were drawn to the large scar across his abs though. “Oh my god,” Alya whispers, her hand rising up to cover her mouth.

Abruptly, Rose stood up and ran to the washroom, and sounds of her being violently sick filtered back out to them.

“How did we not know…” Nino mumbles as he slumps into the couch. “We’ve seen you get at least half of these major injuries.”

Adrien shook his head. “There’s a reason that we avoid the media when injured. We’re role models, and us getting injured and being fallible destroys the strong illusion that people had of us. Our healing factor helps keep up the illusion. If people see us falter, then the fear will only continue to grow – and there will be more akumas than ever.”

“Um, how fast do you heal?” Sabrina asked shyly, for once not being shushed by Chloe.

This time, it’s Marinette who answers. “Well it depends on the severity of the injury. If it’s life-threatening, our bodies will go on over drive and heal it as much as possible until we run out of fuel. If it’s not, it take a couple days until we’re back at full capacity. Although the pain lingers.” She answers honestly. “Cuts and scrapes can heal in a couple of hours.”

“What qualifies as life-threatening though? I mean, we all saw the pictures of the akuma with the straight razors, there had to be like 15 lodged in your back man.” Kim asked, looking a bit faint himself.

“Yeah, that one was pretty bad. I had to have the stitches in for a day or two to make sure it healed right. Hurt like a… uh… butt cheek on a stick for a while though.” Adrien confesses.

Marinette nods. “It takes a _lot_ of energy to heal – hence why we’re always snacking on something after a bad fight – so our bodies regulate it as best we can. The only time I can really remember that one of us was that close to dying…” her eyes flickered over to look at large scar on Adrien’s stomach. She shuddered and looked incredibly sad. This unnerved the rest of them.

“How did that happen. If my memory serves, that’s one of the few serious injuries _not_  reported on the Ladyblog.” Chloe said bluntly, her tone clipped and sharp. She was avoiding showing emotion, but everyone could tell that she was affected by her friend’s scars.

Alya looked down at her phone before moving over to connect it to Chloe’s TV. “It was one of the few fights I recorded but didn’t post. If Marinette and Adrien alow it, I’ll show you why.” She whispered, pulling up an old file and looking over at her friends.

Marinette closed her eyes. “I think it’s about time that somebody else knows. You need to understand just how dangerous things are now.”

And with that, Alya clicked play.

 

The video was blurry at first, shaking as Aluya ran through the streets of Paris sand clambered up onto the rooftop. The frame evened out, and soon it was easy to hear the clangs of battel over Alya’s heavy breathing. It turns out that she had a near perfect view of the battle before her. They could all perfectly see Ladybug and Chat Noir holding their own against the saw wielding akuma, but then there was a moment where Ladybug had her back turned.

A moment was all that it took for the akuma to pounce, launching a circular saw blade at the red hero. In an instant, Chat noir appeared beside her, pushing her out of the way even though he didn’t have enough time to get out of the way himself. Instead of nearly decapitating Ladybug’s crouched form, it nearly cut Chat Noir in half. Everybody in frame froze and it was easy to hear Alya’s shocked “oh my god,” as blood burst everywhere.

And that’s when Chat Noir let out the most awful pained shriek. The kind of scream of pure agony that stays with you even years down the  road. He was hunched over howling wildly, before collapsing onto the ground in a bloody heap.

“Chat!" Ladybug’s panicked yell echoes off the surrounding buildings. She moved to rush to her partner’s side, but it would seem that the akuma had recovered from their own shock and was ready to try and kill Ladybug again. From that moment on, Ladybug’s fighting was far from her elegant style. She didn’t once use her yo-yo, instead grabbing her partner’s bloody baton and proceeding to try and beat the life out of the akuma. She was completely unrelenting in her violent attack. The akuma obviously had not planned for Ladybug’s rage, and by the time he even thought about fighting back, she was already on him.

Her rage was absolute – and utterly terrifying.

To Paris, Ladybug was a beacon of hope. It was easy to overlook the cat, but Lady Luck would always be the crowd favourite. This still persisted despite Ladybug lashing out at the press with increasing frequency. (The debate about if superheroes were good or not was thriving off of that fact, even if the common citizens didn’t seem all that concerned about it) she was France's darling, and nothing short of very brutal murder would probably be enough to change that.

For the class, finding out that Ladybug’s identity was Marinette Dupain-Cheng only further cemented that idea in their heads. Marinette was so sweet, kind, and shy. She had enough of a backbone to not be a pushover, but not enough to be cocky and rude. Marinette was just such a good person, so of course it makes sense that she was Ladybug. Her being a badass was just sorta overlooked.

 

(Finding out about Chat Noir was Adrien all along had a bit of an opposite effect. Sure Adrien had gained some confidence over the years that they’d known him, but there was still a very large disparity between the personalities of Adrien Agreste and Chat Noir. Chat Noir was confident and boisterous while Adrien was quiet and little bit shy. Adrien was often called the sunshine child, while Chat Noir was the night – it was an interesting duality to look at; with Marinette being the moon to his sun and Ladybug being the day to his night.)

 

 

But even with all that badassness, Ladybug had never seemed dangerous or threatening. After seeing that video, all of her metaphorical scars were plain to see. She skipped right past dangerous and went right to utterly terrifying – and all because Chat Noir had been hurt.

There’s a saying that you should be weary of those that smile the brightest because while it takes a lot to get to them, once your cross them, they’re the ones who will stop at nothing to destroy you. Demons run when a good man goes to war, and all that.

On some level, they knew this… but it didn’t make it any less terrifying.

The video ended with a still frame of Ladybug standing over a beaten akuma and releasing a small glowing butterfly with Chat noir laying in a pool of blood. It was very cinematic, but also very terrifying.

The class sat in a tense silence as they stared at the screen. No one wanted to speak.

 

“It took most of the day for the wound to close, and even after that, simply moving was a feat to be proud of. Adrien stayed home the next day, we all did actually. The attack had been too close to the school. That was when I found out that Adrien was Chat Noir – If you remember, I started dating him the week after.” Marinette’s quiet voice broke the silence.

Adrien shrugged his shirt back on. “We’re very grateful that you didn’t post that video, Alya. A lot of damage can be done if people lose faith in Ladybug. She’s the city’s star, and people would panic. Just look at what happened the last time she lashed out. More people than ever are trying to control us and demand our unmasking.”

It was a pretty relevant problem now after all. “For the most part, people didn’t see just how dangerous things really are right now. We have reporters, but they don’t know how to handle the warzone that Paris becomes as soon as a major akuma attacks.” Alya points out somberly, “so their solution is to just treat it how it was the beginning.”

Another silence broke out as people reflected upon what they’d learned.

“Do you have scars, Marinette?” Nathaniel asks. “Back with that pool unit, Chloe and I helped Adrien cover up, but Chloe said Alya and Juleka were helping you…”

Marinette smiled softly. “I do, there’s just less. My regenerative abilities are stong due to my creative nature and I am more agile than Adrien. I’m also pale, so the scar tissue blends in pretty well.” She admitted. Adrien merely rolled his eyes at her.

“Mari…” he whined, “I can’t help it that cats are destructive! I’m trying my best.”

“We’ve been over this, If you stop taking hits for me, you’d tax your system way less.”

 

‘Mari!”

The others just continued to watch as the two devolved into a practiced agreement. It had always been plain to see their devotion to each other, but watching Chat Noir almost get cut in half and Ladybug losing it…

Well… it was that final wake up call.

**Author's Note:**

> title from the song cuz I suck at coming up with titles ~ also I was thinking of writing some voltron fics, who do people feel about that?
> 
> [Yourwritingco](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yourwritingco/pseuds/Yourwritingco) requested this topic so I hope this is a bit better than the small bit I touched on in my chloe redemption centered 5+1 thing - speaking of that, credit to Yourwritingco for that fic idea too! Check them out!


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